Caitlin Clark breaks silence on Angel Reese trash talk controversy
By Josh Hill
ESPN aired a Caitlin Clark interview today in which the Iowa star addressed Angel Reese trolling her and the ensuing controversy that flared up on social media.
Sunday’s national championship game between LSU and Iowa was an all-time classic, one that served as the perfect exclamation point on one of the best March Madness tournaments we’ve seen in a while.
All of the ingredients were there: a powerhouse coach, two schools vying for their first-ever title, and one of the nation’s best basketball players at either the amateur or professional level.
LSU stormed to a 102-85 victory, ending Iowa’s journey and denying Caitlin Clark the storybook ending to her dominant tournament performance. All throughout March, Clark had been laying waste to opponents by breaking records and taking no prisoners.
Her signature move came to be the John Cena ‘You Can’t See Me’ move, a flex that was universally celebrated.
Angel Reese flipped the script on Clark, turning her flex against her as LSU rolled to victory. It seemed not unlike any other troll we see in sports, yet Reese was taken to task in extremely coded tweets calling out her behavior, which was a debate that exploded to overshadow the incredible game everyone had just watched.
Caitlin Clark interview today addressed Angel Reese controversy
Almost everyone had something to say about Reese’s troll, including Reese herself.
The LSU star said after the game that she thought Clark was an incredible player, but didn’t like the disrespect she had shown toward Reese’s teammate Alexis Morris, or how she conducted herself in Iowa’s Final Four victory over South Carolina.
Clark stayed silent on the matter until Tuesday, when she finally commented on the entire controversy on ESPN.
To the chagrin of folks who called Reese out, Clark defended her against the criticism.
“I don’t think Angel should be criticized at all. No matter what way it goes, she should never be criticized for what she did. I compete, she competed,” Clark said Tuesday on ESPN. “It was a super, super fun game. I think that’s what’s going to bring more people to our game”
The entire cycle this story went through was insane, if not completely unnecessary. The LSU-Iowa title game was the best game in all of March Madness, and the main takeaway should be that the women’s game grew exponentially because of it.
Over 12 million were watching the game at one point, and the final ratings came in around 9.9 million viewers. There’s no surer sign of the awesome interest in women’s sports than the final numbers from this year’s title game.
Don’t let the corny and shameful dog whistle tweets about Reese distract from that fact.